redFlags

NYPD infiltration of protests exposed, as if it's anything new

Just because you're paranoid, that doesn't mean nobody is watching.

The massive police deployment of undercover DTs in NYC has long been known to activists. Recently the NY Times did a major story on it (largely based on footage from Democracy Now). Over the next few days Red Flags will feature a breakdown of this unfolding (ersatz) scandal. In the meantime, check out the Times video footage of NYPD Infiltration of Protests (or if you're on dial-up, here's the article.)

Concern over informants grows in case of 6 eco-activists

Concern is growing among activists in ecological and direct action movements because of the government's use of informants and snitches in the arrests of six activists on charges of association with the Earth Liberation Front's arsons on the West Coast.

The use of severe sentencing guidelines to compel testimony is a tactic to break communities and trust. Repression doesn't just hurt those personally under the gun, it metastasizes into fear and isolation. Consciousness of this can help fight it.

The New York arrestee Daniel McGowan has denied any connection to the ELF, and his bail hearing attorney noted to WBAI's WakeUp Call that considering the case is over 5 years old, the chance of physical evidence is slight. Here's an update on McGowan's case from an independent reporter who attended his Eugene hearing.

From Indybay: There have been a number of developments in the cases of the "eco-defense" defendants who were arrested earlier this month and who face the holidays in prison cells. Daniel McGowan was denied bail based on a conversation that was recorded without his consent.  The co-defendant in the charges that he faces is apparently an informant.  Bill Rodgers was found dead in an apparent suicide in his cell in Arizona, in spite of the strong support that he had received from his community.  A former Animal Liberation Front prisoner has received a subpoena for a grand jury hearing. {read]

Statement from Friends of the Catalyst in Arizona about the death of Bill Rodgers.

The Murder of Fred Hampton: Watch now

From Free Speech TV: The Black Panther Party galvanized millions of African Americans against police repression and brutality, upholding the right of armed self-defense. The government lauched a campaign of murder, jailings and disinformation to destroy the BPP. This film documents the Chicago police murder of one of the most charismatic and effective Panther leaders, Illinois Party chapter chairman Fred Hampton. Watch (RealPlayer required)

Beyond the Nickel and Dime, Transit Strike Is Our Strike

Jed Brandt writes for Monthly Review Zine &  NYC Indymedia:

It was just last week at a party in Sunset Park, Brooklyn where I was railing drunk that the chance of a strike was "zero."  I ranted about the sell-out union leaderships and their habits of business unionism. I joked about Transit Workers Union, Local 100 leader Roger Touissant's historical admiration of Enver Hoxja, and the sorry path even earnest militants take after getting digested by the labor bureaucracy. Decades of defeat have earned a healthy cynicism about the leadership of a union movement that doesn't move, and the dominant "labor" model of reducing workers' struggles to the nickels and dimes of contract arbitration.

Let me eat my shoe in shame. I was wrong -- there is a line the transit workers won't cross. They are on that line right now -- and every communist and anti-capitalist worth their salt will be doing whatever is in their power to help this strike win. This is a popular fight, and not the property of the strike leadership -- independent activity is a must, explicity anti-capitalist agitation can change a limited dispute into a broad social change. This strike needs the very spirit of resistance in all its poetic glory that we can't trust the mainstream media and official labor leaders to deliver. They do what they do, so do we all.

This is a battle for New York. Gentrification, "Giuliani Time," a billionaire mayor, the whole issue of who owns this city. If the TWU wins, we all do. And the effect won't just be in the paycheck of the workers directly involved, but in the capacity of everyday people to learn from their own experience that so much more is possible than what the bosses, media and "authorities" demand.

The workers of Local 100 refused to back down. They are courageously facing New York's draconian Taylor Law that makes any strike by public sector workers illegal. Fines are being levied against Local 100 of $1 million a day, with the strike leadership facing jail -- and the membership threatened with $25,000-a-day fines (yet to be levied). The TWU's international leader, and scab labor-faker Mike O'Brien tried to sabotage the strike. He was duly ignored. Local 100 is standing firm against a two-tier system for pensions and health care that will rob future generations of not just a living wage, but the power of class organization. They are striking over the right to strike. This is not just about those nickels and dimes.

Pickets are set up throughout the city. PICKET LOCATIONS

Roger Toussaint and two other leaders of the TWU are being called before a judge today and face jail for representing the interests of the rank-and-file. The TWU has called on strike supporters to converge on Central Booking (aka The Tombs) in the event of arrest.

Local 100 is among the most proletarian of major industrial unions in the country. The majority of workers are from oppressed nationalities, do not tend to have higher education, and have earned a bottom-line standard of living through decades of militant struggle. TWU long set the standard of what a strike can do with their ability to shut the world's most powerful city down through strike action. This is why they are feared and disrespected.16,000 citations are issued to workers a year for infractions of all kinds. This is harassment. The issue of respect on the job is a huge part of this that few are discussing. Strikes are about seizing dignity.

Support and opposition is neatly breaking down along race and class lines, with the Sex in the City crowd appalled at their inconveniences, the tabloids howling bloody murder and the working people of the city overwhelmingly of the sentiment that "this is our strike."

TRANSIT STRIKE IS OUR STRIKE
It's been rare in recent decades to see any major union take up a real fight. But when an entire city is shut down by the coordinated action of workers standing up for themselves against the most reactionary and anti-people politicians -- the sides are as clear as the stakes are high.

Whatever our beliefs about the structure and ideology of North American unionism, this is a turning point for the working class struggle in New York, and even nationally. A defeat will be the final nail in the coffin of organized labor as a social force. Victory could literally overturn the legacy of PATCO.

The TWU cannot be broken. They are the only force in the city capable of literally shutting it all down, standing up the racist political structure that spits on working people -- and breaking the culture of passivity that is deeply entrenched not just in the union halls, but in the hearts of the masses of people. Direct action gets the goods, and we should all do our part -- whatever that is.

It's easy to put up signs of support in our own neighborhoods, and to advocate for the workers everywhere we go. All traffic is heading over the bridges, which gives a unique opportunity for outreach (of all kinds) as those who are still working head in. A few banners well-placed, a little painting, a few random support mini-marches do wonders to turn what appears at first as a simple matter of a 3% raise versus more money into a what it in fact is: class struggle.

Some communists, to say nothing of the larger activist milieu, have expressed skepticism about working class action to the point of abstention. There is a famous quote by Lenin that the model for militants in our movement should be a "tribune of the people" and not the shop steward. If ever there was a need for a tribune to tie the strike to the underlying social issues -- THAT TIME IS NOW.

Here is the list of picket locations throughout the city. The base of Brooklyn Bridge is a great place for banners and signs of support. Maybe even some red flags on the ground.

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NYC Indymedia is on top of the strike with up-to-the-minute reports, commentary and photography.

Bennett Baumer filed this report at the end of Day 2: Transit Workers Take Control

Additional reporting of note:

NYT: Race Bubbles to the Surface || Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Toussaint No Stranger to Extreme Tactics || NY Daily News: Throw Roger From the Train!

True Lies

Taalam Acey stars in this teaser of the upcoming GNN documentary American Blackout. Watch

Mike Albert's Analysis from Argentina and Venezuela

Mike Albert has recently taken a trip to observe the occupied factories of Argentina and the social implications of Venezuela's Path. These are big questions for the pan-American left, and Albert's observations are definitely worth checking out.

Strike Update: Community Groups Rally, Call to Defend Strike Leadership

TWU has called for eveyone and their mother to show up at Central Booking aka the Tombs (near Canal and B'way) if the government jails Roger Toussaint and the strike leadership for refusing to knuckle under to the anti-strike injunction. 

Keep tuned to NYC Indymedia's extensive and ongoing strike coverage.

Check out the new community support blog: NYC in Solidarity With Transit Workers.

And there is the TWU's strike blog Transit Worker

An Impeachable Offense? Bush Admits Authorizing NSA to Spy Without Warrant

From Democracy Now: President Bush has admitted he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without ever seeking court approval. Famed constitutional attorney Martin Garbus and former intelligence officer Christopher Pyle both say it is an impeachable offense. We also speak with investigative journalist James Bamford about the history of the NSA. Plus, The New York Times exposed the story, but why did they hold it for more than a year?
[Read & Listen]

Maoist rebels storm jail in east India, free 350

On Nov. 21, hundreds of heavily armed Maoist rebels stormed a jail in eastern India, killing at least two people and freeing about 350 prisoners, including many fellow guerrillas.

The rebels entered Jehanabad town in impoverished and crime-ridden Bihar state on Sunday night in small groups, cut off power and raided the prison in one of the biggest ever attacks by Maoist guerrillas, a police officer said. The rebels, who were estimated to number 700, killed a prison guard and a member of a private army of upper caste landlords in a gunbattle with policemen.The guerrillas also abducted at least two dozen members of the Ranvir Sena, the private army of upper caste landlords, who were jail inmates.

"It is the biggest ever attack in Bihar and it is for the first time the heart of a town was taken over by Maoists," a federal police officer, who did not want to be named, said. [read]

Interview with the late June Jordan on growing up, and the struggle of Palestine

 
From Free Speech TV: David Barsamian of Alternative Radio talks with June Jordan about her new autiobiography, a much praised account of her first 12 years, told in the voice of a child. In extensive remarks on the Middle East, she describes the struggle of the Palestinian people as a moral litmus test.  Watch (RealPlayer required)